Strawberry Birthday Cake

This past weekend, I went home to Alabama to celebrate my mother's birthday, and every year, as usual, I make her birthday cake. Being avid fans of old-school Southern cookery, we generally opt for a typical white cake with buttercream frosting for our birthdays, but this year, my mom wanted to deviate from the norm. She found a recipe for a strawberry mousse cake in Southern Living that looked appealing, and selected it as her birthday cake of choice for this year.

Now, not to throw shade at Southern Living, as I've been a huge fan of their magazine for a number of years, but this recipe was "jank" (as the kids call it). My first attempt at baking the cake was an unmitigated disaster, so much so that I ended up scrapping it altogether. For my second attempt, I opted for the traditional 1-2-3-4 Cake which is virtually fail-proof and always a winner. It's a bit more dense than a traditional white cake, but a little lighter than a pound cake, with a delicate almond flavor, making it the perfect vessel for the fresh strawberry frosting.

While the original Southern Living recipe included a strawberry mousse filling, my mom requested that I disregard it and just use the fresh strawberry frosting in between the layers. So I returned to recipe, and once again, the measurements were off. However, this mishap was far easier to remedy -- the frosting was far too runny to spread on the cake once I finished, so I kept adding powdered sugar until it reached the right consistency. Also, if you choose to make this recipe yourself, chilling the frosting for 30 minutes to an hour will also help to stiffen it into spreadability. 

The final product was delicious. With the dense cake and strawberry frosting, you'd think that it would be extremely rich and perhaps cloyingly sweet. However, the fresh strawberries make the frosting incredibly light and refreshing, and the almond flavor of the cake compliments the strawberry flavor incredibly well. This is a fantastic summer cake and ideal for any sort of get-together.

Strawberry Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

1-2-3-4 Cake:

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 cups cake flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Fresh Strawberry Frosting:

3/4 cup butter (softened)

6-7 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup fresh strawberries (chopped)

To prepare the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate vessel, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then, add eggs to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until incorporated. Gradually add the sifted flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings, and beat until smooth. Pour the batter into two greased and/or non-stick 9-inch cake pans* and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then remove them, allowing them to cool to room temperature.

*NOTE: The original recipe insists that the preparer pour the batter into 3 9-inch cake pans, but when I made this cake, 2 pans sufficed.

To prepare the frosting: Beat the butter until it's reached a fluffy consistency. Gradually add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and beat the mixture until it's thoroughly incorporated. Once you have added 5 cups of powdered sugar, add the strawberries and beat the mixture until smooth. Then gradually add more powdered sugar, beating well each time, until it reaches your desired consistency.* Spread an even layer between the cake layers and on the outside of the cakes.

*NOTE: When I made this frosting, I ended up using 7 cups of powdered sugar, but just use your own judgment.

Allow the finished cake to chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the final slice of the beloved Strawberry Birthday Cake:

(Please excuse my lackluster food photography skills...)

If you do make this cake, please let me know how it turns out for you!